This Inspirational Pune Doctor Doesn’t Charge For Girls Born In His Hospital !!

2015-11-25 04:02:23

Here is a Pune doctor who has been waiving off maternity charges when a girl child is born!! In 2007, Dr Ganesh Rakh set up a 25-bed Medicare General and Maternity Hospital in the Hadapsar suburb of Pune, with the aim to help underprivileged patients. But, today he's doing more than just that. As his hospital has grown, so has the intensity of his work.

After he started his hospital in Pune's Hadapsar area in 2007, Dr Ganesh Rakh noticed something rather unusual. "Most of the mothers going through labour were worried about whether it's a boy or girl. Even during the nine months of pregnancy, the pressure or preference to have a boy is there,".

As he said "It's really heart-breaking, I've seen mothers forgetting severe pains post-delivery due to their happiness due to the birth of a boy; and then there are mothers who cry, despite having no pain, when they are told that they have given birth to a girl."

In a bid to fight female infanticide, Dr Rakh kicked off a unique initiative on January 2012. In line with the initiative, Dr Rakh wouldn't charge any delivery fees if a girl child is born. Initially, his initiative was met with a lot of apprehension from his gyanecologists and paediatricians.

"When I told them that I'd decided that the hospital will bear the expenses of neo-natal care, they were understandably quite skeptical as to whether I would be able to run a hospital or not," he admits.

So while a normal delivery costs a patient Rs 10,000, and a caesarian delivery costs Rs 25,000, there is absolutely no charge if a girl is born. And since he took the decision, the doctor said he has waived the cost of delivering 432 baby girls so far. "The logic is to sustain the hospital and pay the salary of the staff through other services we provide and charge for at the hospital," he said.

The websiteof his hospital, Medicare Hospital Foundation Trust, displays a banner for the 'Save The Girl Child' campaign, while appealing for donations to keep the scheme running. But Dr Rakh admits that so far he's not received any money through this route.